Assembly - February 2009 - (Page 29) systems, call 419-443-1818 or visit www.arnoldmachine.com. For more on conveyors and indexing systems, call 419-455-9258 or visit www.tiffinnorthstar.com. Lockbolts Support 7,500 Thermosolar Collectors he Andasol 1 thermosolar power plant in Southern Spain, which went on-line in late 2008, has an annual capacity of approximately 179 million kilowatt hours, enough to satisfy the needs of 200,000 people in 50,000 homes, or a city the size of Spokane, WA. The first parabolic thermosolar power plant in Europe and the largest of its type in the world, Andasol 1 is located on the Guadix plateau, surrounded by the Sierra Nevada foothills in Spain’s Granada Province. The 482-acre complex incorporates some 7,500 parabolic T trough collectors to capture the sun’s and temperature variations. To ensure the framing didn’t work heat and convert it to electric power. loose over time, the project manager In many ways, Andasol 1 is much the same as a traditional thermoelectric pow- ACS-Cobra Group (Madrid, Spain) er plant. However, instead of fossil fuels, incorporated approximately 3.4 milit uses its hundreds of 20-by-40-foot par- lion Avdelok structural lockbolts from abolic reflectors to concentrate the sun’s mechanical fastening specialist Avdel rays at 80 times normal intensity onto an (Stanfield, NC) to hold the tens of thouarray of steel and glass tubes filled with sands of pieces in place. Tests verified that the vibration-resissynthetic oil, heating the oil to 735 F. The tant lockbolts with their permanently hot oil is then pumped to an exchange unit where the captured energy is used to drive a steam turbine. The collectors and their supporting framework were assembled on site using prefabricated galvanized steel parts, mirrors and pipes, and then mounted on pillars connected to the oil flow circuit. Each collector had to be mounted precisely to ensure a high-level of thermal efficiency. The framework also has to be ro- The approximately 7,500 solar collectors comprising bust enough to withstand decades the new Andasol 1 thermosolar plant in Spain were all of vibrations from high winds assembled on site using 3.4 million lockbolts. www.assemblymag.com February 2009 / ASSE M B LY 29 http://www.arnoldmachine.com http://www.tiffinnorthstar.com http://www.dymax.com/speed http://www.assemblymag.com
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